Digital Relapse
by peacefulsands
Summary: Jensen is injured in the line of duty, the rest of the team are there to look out for him.


**Digital Relapse**

**Written for the prompt : The Losers, Cougar/Jensen - Broken fingers**

******Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

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_His_ techno-geek is a mess when they finally get to him and Cougar is beyond angry, beyond words, not that many people would realize or so Jensen would tell him, if he could. First off, though he's going to get him out of here, get Jensen somewhere safe, even if it's only temporarily safe. Like anywhere is ever safe for them now.

There are days when Cougar hates the fact he got shuffled round into _this_ team with _these_ people. Days when it feels like they were all set up from the start, set up to fail, to die. They're all paying for someone else's fuck ups with their blood, their hopes and futures. He's never said it aloud, he never will. It's not exactly the kind of thing you say and engender good team spirit and if there's one thing they need it's fucking team spirit because they're all they've got. If they don't look out for each other, nobody else is going to look out for them anymore. While _his_ Jensen holds a special place in his heart, the rest of the team pull strings too, they demanded his sense of loyalty and he isn't about to let any of them down.

Sometimes though, Cougar's pretty sure that Jensen knows anyway. _His_ Jensen would remind him, out of earshot of everyone else . . . probably . . . although with Jensen he can never be entirely sure of that, Jensen would remind him that without _this_ team, they wouldn't have been stationed together, they wouldn't have each other's backs.

Normally that would help; it would ease a little of the betrayal because Jensen would be right. For all of the crap, this team is good, sound and as for him and Jensen, better than good. He looks down at Jensen's unconscious form and bites his lip before he lets anything unwanted find a voice. He coasts the back of his hand across Jensen's cheek to see if he can rouse him, unsure whether he wants to at this point or not. They need to move and moving with Jensen conscious will be marginally easier than them trying to carry him out as dead weight. Yet Cougar hates to see him in pain and after the beating he's just taken, Jensen's going to be in pain.

The tech shifts a fraction beneath his hand and so he makes a more determined effort to wake him, finally resorting to a pinch to the underside of his bicep that he's amazed Jensen notices given the amount of other damage that he's suffered. Jensen's barely got his eyes open before Cougar is enlisting Pooch's help to pull him up to his feet.

Cougar has to hand it to him, by sheer stubborn dumbass willpower alone, Jensen is on his feet. The sniper isn't going to let him stand alone though, given the clear disorientation still in his eyes and the wavering stance that suggests it wouldn't take much to put him down, a stiff breeze at most. He'd started to complain about the pain he was in, but it only took a word to silence him. Cougar's in no doubt whatsoever that he's in agony, but the thought that any sound he makes might be what jeopardizes them all is enough to have Jensen biting his tongue.

Before Jensen has time to say anything, Roque is throwing a weapon at him. He fumbles it and it falls to the floor. Roque's anger is blatant as he picks it up and thrusts it straight at Jensen's chest. Jensen's already too pale features and glassy look deteriorate rapidly. He doesn't take hold of the weapon and Roque is forced to tighten his own grip on it to stop it falling again.

Roque starts a reprimand, but finds himself shoved out of the way by Pooch as Cougar's hands grasp frantically for a better hold on Jensen to keep him on his feet. His own quick reflexes keep Jensen up as his eyes start to roll back and Cougar is scanning the younger man's body again, looking for something he missed. That's when he sees them, really sees them: Jensen's hands.

He'd seen them before, taken note of the blood and the weird position they were in on top of his unconscious body but just assumed that Jensen had been dropped unconscious and his body had made no move to rectify its position from its incapacitated position. Now he can see differently. As well as the bruising that Cougar is pretty sure will extend farther than they can see, aside from the labored breathing, aside from the cuts and slashes that they can see on his arms and, thanks to the shredded remains of his t-shirt, on his torso, Jensen's hands and fingers are curled and twisted. Cougar knows without needing to prod and poke that they're both broken and that they're going to be bastards to realign.

Carefully he shifts one of Jensen's arms over his shoulder, a glance at Pooch has the other man doing the same on Jensen's other side. Both men can tell Jensen is fighting to try and stay conscious, to try and shift his own weight and not be a liability. Their hacker has done enough, in their eyes at least. When Roque makes as if to object, Pooch is the one who snaps at him to just back off and leave Jensen out of it. He adds a moment later to look at Jensen's hands because Roque looks like he's about to butt in again.

Hell, Roque might be Clay's second in command, but right now, Cougar's clearly tempted just to shoot him in the head and be done with it. Jensen's got them out of enough scrapes, put his life on the line enough times that there's no way they're not going to look out for him now. They're supposed to be a team.

* * *

They're at a safe house and Jensen's been drifting in and out of conscious as they've cleaned and stitched all the slashes and cuts that litter his body. They've taped his ribs, because he still isn't breathing right and the bruising that's coming out across the whole expanse of his torso now looks fucking horrendous. They're still waiting on Clay making it back and Roque's been pacing the hall outside the room they've got Jensen in.

Pooch and Cougar aren't even acknowledging his existence right now. Both men are focusing on fixing up Jensen. Pooch can see the sorrow in Cougar's eyes, knows he's wishing he could take some of Jensen's physical pain, save him from some of this hurt. The two have been getting closer over the last few months. Pooch has seen it, but hell, even now, he's not going to comment. It's not like it makes a difference, they're like family anyway. They've both proved they're willing to sacrifice themselves to keep Pooch safe, to get him back to his family so he's not going to start getting fretful over them being more like family than they're admitting.

Pooch knows they all hate patching each other up, hate when one of their own gets hurt, but there's something about Jensen that seems to wrench up the protective feelings a notch more. He couldn't put a finger on just what it is about Jensen that's managed to get under everyone's skin like that. The guy's a nerd, a techno geek with a mouth that never stops working but he's like everyone's kid brother, full of life, enthusiasm and candy-fueled energy. He's also a black-ops trained soldier, more than just 'capable' in the field, but that doesn't stop the protectiveness at all.

Cougar's hands are trembling as he tries to stitch the worst of the gashes together and he keeps having to stop to breathe and calm his nerves. Pooch is in no doubt that he's not going to be able to continue working. He looks again at Jensen's hands and wonders how they're gonna realign those without making matter worse.

Looking at Cougar he can see the shake in his hand as he continues to stitch the wound he's working on. It's getting worse and Pooch knows that for Jensen's sake he's going to have to take over. When it takes Cougar three wavering attempts to make the next stitch, Pooch taps his arm and makes him give up the needle. Cougar's eyes are relentlessly drawn to the broken fingers as if that's what's bothering him, which in truth it probably is. Both men look up as there is the sound of voices, irritated and angry voices beyond the closed door. Moments later the door swings open framing Clay who strides across the room.

It takes moments for Clay to appraise the whole situation, taking in both Jensen's and Cougar's state. "Pooch!" he barks, with a tilt of his head toward Cougar, "Get him out of here, before he throws up!"

Pooch isn't one to ignore that tone of voice from his commanding officer, so he's standing and grabbing Cougar's arm without question, just urging Cougar up and out, "Come on, Cougs, man, let's get you some air."

Cougar is on his feet but he's not ready to move, despite Pooch's urging. "Come on Cougar, fresh air . . . remember what that is? We'll be back in a few, Clay's gonna look out for Jensen, no worries man."

Cougar doesn't shift, but his expression darkens, eyes settling with a death glare on Clay. "No! I stay!"

"Oh no you don't, soldier. You get out now, you get yourself cleaned up and you get some fresh air and that is an order!" Clay steps right up to Cougar, 'in his face' literally. "OUT! Now!"

Cougar wavers for a moment, still determined to stay but not able to easily override the inbuilt reaction to commands. The wavering is enough though for Pooch to get behind him and with a hearty push to propel him out of the room, down the corridor and out of the door for a moment. There's a reluctant call of "Jensen!" as Pooch removes him from the building.

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Fuck, Clay hates seeing his team hurt, any of them.

He hates the way Cougar soaks up the pain in silence and has to be watched because you never can be sure just how hurt he really is. Jensen's useful for that, the kid seems to be able to read Cougar in a way none of the others manage. That alone is almost enough to make Clay willing to ignore what he knows is going on between the two men. He'll turn a blind eye, knowing that for now it's not having a detrimental effect on his team, it's actually balancing them more and heavens do they need some balance right now.

Clay hates the guilt that goes with Pooch getting hurt, the feeling that not only has he failed Pooch and his team in allowing it to happen, but he's letting down Jolene and the whole essence of family, future and normal that Pooch represents for them all.

Roque injured is different. Not a good thing by any means, it knocks his confidence, his belief that they can survive what their 'job' keeps throwing at them. Roque is invincible, or at least in Clay's mind he is, he's supposed to be invincible, so Roque injured reminds Clay in a brutal way that they're likely to wind up dead and lost in some dead end pit in the back of beyond with no one ever caring.

Clay can live with his own injuries, has to really. He can be stoic and manly and all that shit, at least most of the time he can, when he's not yelling out angrily as one of the others patch him up.

Jensen . . . he looks down at Jensen now, swallowing down the bitterness that comes of seeing their tech injured. Jensen injured just makes him feel like a shit, a failure on all fronts. The sight of the broken and twisted fingers are heart breaking and Clay feels nauseous. He's got to deal with this, he's got to fix this and protect Cougar and Pooch from having to deal with any more than they've already done. He can see the sheer volume of patching up the two men have already done and it does nothing to settle his stomach, nothing at all to ease his mind.

He sifts a hand through Jensen's shorn hair, as he murmurs, "You're going to be fine Jensen." He carefully picks up the nearer of Jensen's hands, turning it over and examining it all closely. Tentatively he feels the length of each finger, working out the details of the damage done and relieved to see that it's not as bad as first appeared. There's a couple of bad breaks with the bones twisted out of place on his left hand and the rest seems to be just swelling giving the appearance of worse. He settles the left hand down and repeats the process with the right hand, figuring that there he's got to deal with one clean break and two dislocations. Not good, but a hell of a lot better than he was imagining and Jensen is going to be driving them all up the wall with both hands out of serious hacking action for a while. Still they can hold over him how bad it almost was.

He stands and moves back to the door, opening it, unsurprised to find Roque just outside. "You! In here now and shut the fuck up, because I don't want to hear it." Roque responds surprisingly well to the order, pacing straight to Jensen's side and starting to check him over himself. There's a part of Clay that's tempted to let Roque do the work on Jensen's fingers while he holds him still, but he doesn't let himself give into the temptation, instead saying gruffly, "Hold him down, keep him still."

He waits just long enough for Roque to be in position, he's already taken the time to lay out the supplies he needs and with one quick deep breath, he's steeled himself enough to start. Unsurprisingly Jensen wakes up part way through the process, typical, Clay can't trust him to do anything like staying unconscious for his own good. Roque though, yeah, trying to get out of his grip, Jensen would find it easier to take on an armoured personnel vehicle than shifting away from Roque and that's before the mean fucker starts growling at him. Any other situation and the look on Jensen's face might be amusing, but Clay just turns his attention back to Jensen's hands and continues with the wrench, twist, set, strap process.

It doesn't take him long to lose consciousness again, thankfully, because the yelling was bound to alert Cougar and Clay's got enough on his plate without having Cougar in the room as well. He finishes quickly, then settles Jensen into the most comfortable position he can find for him, least weight resting on the worst of the injuries. He dismisses Roque and sits back to wait.

Roque's only been gone minutes when Cougar and Pooch are back. They're both looking better for the air but they're both pretty determined to check Clay's treatment meets their high standards. He doesn't flinch or give any indication that he's aware of how they're not just checking that Jensen's okay, lets the implication that they're checking out his work slide. They're a team, they know each other's skills, Clay's not the best medic, but he's got the stomach and stamina to keep going when the others are passing their limits of patching each other up.

When they sit back, he knows he's passed the appraisal. "Hopefully he'll come round again soon. Otherwise I might just have to poke a finger on one of the sore spots to get a reaction," he says gruffly. "Not like him to be quiet for so long."

Cougar doesn't say a word, but reaches out to brush away a smudge of dirt from Jensen's cheek. It's Pooch who says, "He'll be back soon, after all if he isn't, we'll have to poke round on his computer without him. I mean between us we could do it, right? Or maybe we could just leave Roque to it?" It's too soon for Jensen to react, he's still too deeply out of it to respond to Pooch's words, but Clay can tell that Cougar's gentle touch will bring him back soon enough that they don't need to worry.

Jensen's a fighter. He might be a geek but he's not going to just lay down and give up after this. They're all going to be hearing about it for weeks, if not months and years if they're really lucky, and the fact that hacking or in fact, any sort of computer interaction is going to be darned uncomfortable for the foreseeable future with his hands so fucked up means they're all going to suffer from Jensen's tech withdrawal, but it doesn't matter, because Jensen's a fighter and he doesn't just give up.

Jensen's a Loser, just like the rest of them.


End file.
